BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — If the Trump Administration NASA budget proposal passes, the space agency’s mission will take a major shift in priorities.

Crewed lunar exploration would get billions of dollars, and a plan will be enacted to focus on Mars programs.

This could mean layoffs on the Space Coast for thousands of employees who work on NASA’s Artemis Program.

The plan could cut the lunar Gateway program and phase out the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule.

The Trump Administration’s 2026 NASA budget proposal would make several funding shifts towards the aim of beating China back to the moon.

Around $647 million would be added to NASA’s human space exploration budget compared to last year.

The proposal would eliminate the Gateway space station that would orbit the moon and phase out the SLS rocket and Orion capsule, and shift towards commercializing missions.

“We are definitely seeing a transition away from government based lunar exploration,” says Don Platt of the Florida Tech College of Engineering and Science.

Platt says there will be layoffs on the Space Coast since the Artemis heavy lift rocket and the Orion capsule are being assembled at Kennedy Space Center.

“All employ people here in Florida on the Space Coast, those projects are going of the books and unfortunately those people are going to be laid off,” Platt said.

The proposal also takes half a billion dollars in ISS funding, reducing crew size and research as NASA prepares to move to commercial space stations.

One local business owner said that the space program on the coast is very interesting to customers.

It’s always busy at Space Shirts in Merritt Island. One of their top sellers is Artemis merchandise.

“Shirts, models, coasters, mugs, keychains,” owner Brenda Mulberry said. She says her customers are fascinated with our country going back to the moon.

“The public is very interested in space, very interested in exploration, and they don’t want to see the space program end,” Mulberry said.

Mulberry is confident customers will still buy their Artemis gear, as even long-gone programs like Apollo and the space shuttle are still big sellers.

“The history of the area is going to go on for a long time and I don’t see any end to it,” she says.

Congress has the final say on approving the 2026 budget.